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CIA OK'd accused leaker to disclose training, assignments

A former Central Intelligence Agency officer charged with leaking classified information was authorized to publicly disclose his training in Farsi and at least one of his assignments abroad, although the CIA now appears to consider those same facts classified, according to a court filing made public last week.

A defense filing from the lead-up to the trial says that about a decade ago, when the CIA was considering a manuscript Sterling hoped to publish, the agency gave approval for him to write about certain details related to his career.

"Mr. Sterling could publicly disclose that he was trained in [redacted]....'Who is a [redacted] speaking case officer going to be using his language skills to communicate with? Not Russians. Not Japanese. Thus, there seemed to be a conscientious decision that the Agency did not object to the fact that Mr. Sterling was going to be [redacted],''" said the defense filing (posted here).

Due to the deletions, the meaning of the quotes and the identity of those quoted is somewhat murky. However, the fact that Sterling was trained to speak Farsi and worked in programs targeting Iran has been widely reported, including in a 2002 article by Risen. That article, about a racial discrimination lawsuit Sterling filed against the CIA, also reported that he worked in Germany for a time and was under cover as an Army logistics officer.

The filing by Sterling's lawyers also appears to present an argument that the fact that the CIA focuses on Iran could not possibly be classified. "[Redacted] has been 'openly and publicly listed as a top tier threat to the country. To deny that we would try to [redacted] might have trouble with the proverbial giggle test," the filing said.

The defense filing sought permission to discuss the same information at trial to rebut any claim that Sterling cavalierly talked to others about secret aspects of his CIA work. "The Government may seek to argue to the jury that these disclosures were inconsistent with his secrecy obligations. The Sterling Manuscript Redactions document demonstrates otherwise," lawyers Ed MacMahon and Barry Pollack wrote. They did not appear to argue that the CIA's action on Sterling's manuscript authorized any leak of the more sensitive information that forms the crux of the case against Sterling.

Sterling's unclassified agency personnel record also reflected his Farsi training, a source familiar with that document told POLITICO.

If CIA did authorize Sterling to disclose certain basic facts about his work, it raises another question: why did classification officers delete those facts from the defense filing? Have they become classified in the meantime? Or is their mention in connection with the present prosecution somehow more damaging to national security than it was when they cleared such references a decade ago, or when they subsequently appeared in People Magazine?

"It is paradoxical, at least," said Steven Aftergood, a classified information expert at the Federation of American Scientists. "The CIA implicitly authorized him to discuss the matters they did not object to [in his manuscript], or at least he reasonably inferred such authorization."

Deletions from defense filings in cases involving classified information are typically done by the court security officer in consultation with the relevant government agencies, though in some cases the deletions go beyond what is usually considered classified information. Courts rarely make an independent analysis of what has been deleted and whether the deletions were necessary.

A CIA spokeswoman said the agency doesn't comment on ongoing litigation. A Justice Department spokeswoman said declassification of court filings is controlled by the agencies connected to whatever information is in the filings.

Sterling filed a lawsuit in 2003 to obtain approval of more of his manuscript. He dropped the suit the following year. His discrimination case against the CIA was ultimately dismissed on grounds that litigating it would expose state secrets.